Monthly Archives: May 2016

Welp, Marvelous May has come and gone. And now, after all this, it’s time to announce the winner of this month-long fan-vote tournament. And so, our winner, and #1 Marvel Superheroine is…!

…GRANNY GOODNESS!!!

…Nah, I’m kidding, it’s Kamala. lol

And really, was there ever any doubt? This young woman has won the hearts of damned near every single person to read her book. She has earned her position as this generation’s favourite Marvel superheroine, a member of the Avengers, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, and the winner of the 2016 Marvelous May fan-vote tournament of superheroines. So congratulations to Kamala Khan, AKA Ms. Marvel. 🙂

And a big hand for everyone else who competed, as well.

Aaaaannnd I’m pretty sure this’ll be the last time I ever do something like this. lol That said, I’m glad I did it, and I’m very thankful for everybody who voted. But, now that this is over, be sure to check back in for updates on my Nuzlocke run, as well as my thoughts on DC Universe Rebirth #1, AND one last send-off/rant for DC’s The New 52. Ja né!

Well, Babs is leaving Burnside for a while, so it’s time for her Bon Voyage! Naturally, since she’s Batgirl, that includes stopping an attempt to destroy Gotham Academy. Here’s the preview for Batgirl #52!

With her friends starting new lives and Burnside changing all around her, it’s time for Batgirl to decide what her next adventure will be—and it just might take her around the world!

…and we’re now down to the last two superheroines standing. It’s time to find out which two will take each other on for the crown of Marvelous May’s #1 Superheroine. First up is Jane Foster, AKA The Mighty Thor!

And thus, let the voting begin! And for this, the finals of the tournament, you can now vote on the final match-up by replying to the links to it on Facebook and Twitter. You have until May 31st, when this year’s Marvelous May ends with the reveal of the Marvelous May #1 Superheroine of 2016. Ja né!

Well, the New 52 is just about at its end, with DC Rebirth coming up next week and the last of the New 52 books ending over the course of the next few months. And while the New 52 has become something of a punchline for many fans, let’s not forget the good times that came with it. Let’s be honest with ourselves and admit that there WERE good books, as well as the bad. So, with that in mind, I’ve decided that, before I seriously rag on the New 52 one last time, I should really take a look at some of my favourite comics from this era. Now, keep in mind, these are JUST the ones that I read. I’m well aware of the fact that there were other good comics that came out during the past five years under the DC banner that won’t be on this list. As such, if your favourites aren’t on the list, by all means, feel free to place your own in the comments. Also, keep in mind that there are books that, while good, just weren’t the overall greats of this list. So, books like Justice League, while having arcs I liked, also had a bunch of arcs I DIDN’T like, so they just missed the cut…though I DO have a bonus round for them. lol And, of course, books that are not a part of the main line, like Sensation Comics feat. Wonder Woman don’t count. Why we couldn’t have more books like it and Legends of Wonder Woman in the main line, I dunno, but for now, let’s start with one that’s probably kinda obvious to anyonewho’s read my blog for a while…

#1 – Superman Unchained

Yeah, not shocking anyone with this pick, I’m sure. Most definitely my favourite of the books starring the New 52 Superman, and it’s one of the reasons I’m actually sad to learn that he’s dying. Yes, he is arguably the most inherently flawed of the mainstream Supermen, but when you have a good writer with a good story writing him, those flaws are used in good ways. We see how this Superman is still an inspirational figure in spite of these flaws by never giving up and continuously trying to do the best he can for the world. So yeah, while I’m obviously overjoyed to see the pre-Flashpoint Superman return to active duty, along with his wife and son, there will always be a little part of me that gets nostalgic for the Superman who didn’t always get it right, but nonetheless kept trying his best, for truth and justice.

#2 – Batgirl

I actually feel bad because I initially was unwilling to give this book a try. Why? Because they’d seemingly undone Babs’ past as Oracle as a means to make her Batgirl again, thus taking the position away from Stephanie Brown, who was nowhere to be seen for a long time. But while all that is true, I can’t deny that this book has had some great moments. Granted, I HATED the Batgirl Wanted arc, and Black Canary’s characterization in the beginning of the Stewart/Fletcher era rubbed me the wrong way, but the rest of it has been highly enjoyable. Some of my favourite moments are probably Alysia’s wedding, the end of the Simone era when Babs called in damned near EVERY superheroine on Earth, ALL of her annuals, the tie-in to Future’s End, that time she and Strix took on vampires, it’s just been a hell of a ride, and I hope that the next volume is just as fun.

#3 – Justice League United

For those that never read this book, I’ll keep the recap brief: Shortly after the collapse of the government sanctioned JLA, which was secretly meant as a fail-safe against the Justice League, three of its members, Stargirl, Martian Manhunter, and Green Arrow, found themselves teaming with Supergirl, Adam and Alanna Strange, Animal Man, and newcomer Equinox, to form a new Justice League: the Justice League United, set up in Canada, and meant to protect the world from extraterrestrial and paranormal threats. Of course, right off the bat, I was excited, since…well, do you know how long I waited for my country to get their own Justice League? Was awesome. But beyond that, getting to see some of the character interactions without the dread present in the JLA book that came before it was great too (Green Arrow and Animal Man playing off each other made for some decent comedy), and there was a lot of more traditional superheroing. In the later stages of the book’s existence, the team began rotating members in and out in order to deal with different situations, regardless of which side of the law they were on. Anyone from Batgirl to Poison Ivy, Swamp Thing to Vandal Savage, and so on could be brought in depending on what the situation called for. Unfortunately, this didn’t last long before the book’s cancellation, but the JLU has since appeared during the Truth story-arc in the Superman books, giving me hope that they’ll one day return to action.

#4 – Convergence

I should probably note that, when I say Convergence is a favourite of mine, I’m not talking about the main series. This is primarily because…well, I didn’t read it, and from what I’ve read, there’s not really much of anything that good, other than the restoration of the Multiverse. Oh, there’s some stuff involving the New 52 version of Earth 2, but unfortunately, that’s been a SERIOUSLY mixed bag. You wanna know more about that, go check out the blog Helena Wayne Huntress for more details. But no, what I’m referring to as one of my favourites of the New 52 is all the tie-in stuff. Granted, that could be seen as cheating for one simple reason: IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE NEW 52. The Convergence tie-ins are about giving resolution to stories that happened before the New 52, letting the heroes of ages past get one last hurrah, and even setting up for maybe a few of them to return later on. And they’re all awesome! Nightwing and Oracle get married and kick ass (not necessarily in that order, lol), Lian is brought back to life, Stephanie Brown suits up as Batgirl again, Lois and Clark have a child, the JSA return, it’s all amazing! Hell, even Scott freaking Lobdell turns in a good Blue Beetle book! I didn’t even think it was possible for him to put out anything of quality, but I guess mathematically speaking, it had to happen EVENTUALLY.

#5 – Batman

…Yyyeeeaaaahh, suppose this isn’t much of a surprise to anyone. lol While I wasn’t a fan of the story where Jim Gordon was Batman, and I found Joker to be WAY over the top in terms of unstoppable villainy is concerned, it’s really hard to not consider this book one the best of the past five years. Snyder and Capullo have simply been on fire for this era, and it’s sad to know that, at least for a while, that team of theirs is over. Although as hard as it is for me and other readers, I gotta imagine it’s even harder for them. But yeah, you guys should all know all of my favourite moments from this book, and if you don’t, I made a list of them just before the Superheavy story-arc. Point is, if you’re a Batman fan and you’ve been avoiding this book for the New 52 branding, don’t. It’s at least worth your time to check out.

So those are my favourite books of the New 52 in terms of overall quality. And now, the bonus round for all the arcs of books that I liked.

Worlds’ Finest

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Huntress and Power Girl fighting a giant Irradiated Man in a Japanese harbour! All it needed was for Godzilla and Dragonzord to show up to make it the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen! XD

Justice League

…Not to self: Review Darkseid War once the entire storyline is finished. It is easily my favourite story of the New 52 Justice League. Also, I thought Origin worked as an introduction to this new timeline, and the Amazo Virus was pretty awesome, too, and marked the point in which Geoff Johns finally found his groove with writing Wonder Woman’s character.

Batman/Superman

Cross World was great, and presented one of my all-time favourite images of Wonder Woman, and the stuff with Mongol and Toymaster is admittedly dumb fun that resolved in an awesome team-up involving Supergirl, Batgirl, Steel, Red Hood, and Krypto.

Batwoman

Y’know, DC, right after the engagement, I was totally gonna stick with this book. Then you called it off, the creative team left as a result, and then you did the stupid vampire thing. Just saying, you had a great thing gift-wrapped for you. I sincerely hope, though, that since Rebirth is apparently nixing the whole heroes-can’t-be-married thing, with the old Superman who is married to Lois Lane being back and Aquaman and Mera being engaged, that Batwoman finally is allowed to get married in Detective Comics.

Talon

Ultimately proved to be hit and miss, but I liked it for the most part. Could’ve done without Casey being damned near torn apart, but watching her make her badass comeback with a cybernetic arm-cannon was awesome. I mean, yeah, it’s another case of extreme violence against women in a comic, but it’s hard not to watch her in the hospital bed right after losing her arm and eye and not grin ear-to-ear when she’s still being like “Aw, fuck it, just put a giant arm-cannon on me, and I’ll fuck these guys up! And Calvin, you better make sure you haven’t completely screwed things up by the time I show up, or your ass is grass!” XD

Nightwing

I unfortunately can’t really justify putting Nightwing on the top 5, but that’s less to do with the quality of the stories told in it and more to do with the constantly changing status quo that was really only a thing strictly because of stuff happening in the other Bat Family books before ending due to events in Forever Evil. Oh, and as a side-note, SO glad to see that Nightwing is in blue again, but not sure where this is going with him as a member of the Court (or Parliament, I guess) of Owls.

Supergirl

I can’t say enough how much I adored the team-up with Power Girl. Was just great.

Starfire

I feel like I MIGHT’VE put this on the list if I’d read through the entire thing and it didn’t delve into the cheesecake quite as much as it did, soooo…Eh, call it sixth, I guess. lol

Earth 2

Again, DC, you had me right up until Evil Superman working for Darkseid, and Thomas Wayne as Batman. Then you completely lost me. And THEN you pissed me off with World’s End and the first arc of Earth 2: Society. Seriously, like I said before, go read Helena Wayne Huntress’ blog for more details, but suffice to say, it’s been a MESS, one that I hope gets cleaned up soon. I DO recommend the Tower of Fate arc, though.

Poison Ivy: Cycle of Life and Death

Problematic for me personally at times, but still enjoying it, and glad it’s here. 🙂

And that’s all my favourite stuff of the New 52. Like I said before, if you’ve got a book that you really liked from this era that wasn’t on here, by all means, leave your own list in the comments, and be sure to check back in the future when I go over the worst of this era. Ja né!

Well, it’s once again time to look at the adventures of Doctor Pamela Isley and her adorable plant ba-…Uh, I guess they’re teenagers now. Yeah, this is Poison Ivy #5.

So, right off the bat, let’s get this out of the way: I wasn’t exactly blown away by this issue. It didn’t piss me off like, say, issue 3 did, but it wasn’t really anything outstanding. We see the babies have grown into teenagers since their genetics are making them age faster than humans, and naturally, as all mutant teens are wont to do, they decide to sneak out one night so they can see the world outside their home. Nothing really wrong with that plot for this issue, just that I’ve seen it done before, and nothing about this scenario really grabbed me as anything different…well, save for one point: Ivy. See, the stuff with the teenagers is all stuff I’ve seen before in other stories. However, through thought balloons and body language, it’s pretty clear to me that Ivy is now realizing that she didn’t think this plan all the way through. While we’ve seen her in a protective and sort-of maternal scenario before, this is her quite literally being a mother, something that is completely new to her. And, as any first-time parent does, she makes mistakes and acknowledges that maybe she didn’t think everything through. To be fair, though, she probably wasn’t planning to keep three teenagers in that one loft and might’ve had long-term plans to move them to someplace at least a little bigger while teaching them over a longer course of time how important it was not to draw attention to themselves. So yeah, everything’s accelerated faster than she had plans for, and she hasn’t had the time to get everything squared away right…and it was right after realizing this that I came to the conclusion that that’s not just a problem for Ivy, but for this story in general.

This story is a 6-issue miniseries that is tackling multiple plot threads all at once: The murder mystery, the kids’ development, Ivy’s issues with becoming a mother, as well as looking at her own sense of morality and stability, the incorporation of Darshan and the other two Gotham City Sirens as side-characters, and so on. Y’know, I’d heard people suggest that Swamp Thing or Batman were going to cameo in this book, and honestly, while it’d be awesome to see either one (I actually thought for sure that’s where we were heading with this issue, in that Batman would have a little chat with Ivy about what’s going on), I feel like it’d bog the story down even more. Even if this was only a 12-issue miniseries, it could STILL manage to balance out and take more time with each of these plots one by one. Instead, because this all has to be resolved in 6 issues, it feels incredibly rushed and crammed in. And you can’t even say “Well, maybe some of these plot threads should’ve been dropped”, since other than maybe not including Selina and Harley, or perhaps dropping Darshan, all of the other plots tie together in a way that, when you take one away, the rest feels a bit hollow. And in regards to the other characters, I’d HATE to drop any of them. The problem is not the story or how many plots are going on at once, but the lack of time given for each one. As such, when Ivy has killed three people so far in this book and then tells the kids “No casualties”, you’re left wondering when she circled back around to the conclusion that killing is bad.

Yeah, and thank GOD Darshan’s a decent human being, because there’s a lot of ways them grabbing him could’ve gone that would’ve increased the already apparent ick-factor with these girls to ASTRONOMICALlevels…Seriously, is anyone else bothered that we went from adorable toddlers to oversexualized teens so quickly? o.O

That said, I wanna make it clear that I DO understand why it’s only 6 issues. To be completely blunt, name one person at DC who had any say in what goes on and what makes it to print who wanted to put out a Poison Ivy book before the demand for it started. Now, while I can’t say that for a fact, and of course someone could pipe up and say they wanted to do so NOW, my guess is that the answer to this question is zero. And I’m not even saying that as any kind of negative comment toward DC. I’m just saying, no one in charge had it in their minds to do it. People who work for them probably did, but when it came to anyone who could actually give the green light for that? Notta. Then the Poison Ivy League started making a bit more noise, and when people like MTV started giving us attention, that’s when they said “Okay, we’ll do a Poison Ivy book”. However, while they were willing to do so, we’ve seen cases in the past (particularly during the New 52) where characters outside of the norm that people would expect to see have their own books get their own books but then be cancelled rather quickly due to low sales. So, I don’t think it’s outside the realm of possibility, nor as anything unreasonable, for them to decide to do a miniseries, and after that, if demand is still high, and the mini sold well, THEN they’ll do a monthly. So, for those wondering why we haven’t seen solicits for a Poison Ivy book as part of DC Rebirth, the reason is likely because they’re waiting for all six issues (and probably the trade, since there are people who simply cannot or will not get the individual issues) to be released and sold and then look at how they did before announcing anything, so don’t be surprised if we don’t get a full monthly until sometime next year.

So, that’s the situation. I get why it’s a 6-issue mini, and why we couldn’t get a full series right away, and how there was really no way to do this story under these conditions that wouldn’t result in this or any other sort of problem with the book. And I’m not pointing fingers at anybody for any issues with the book, either. Everybody, from Amy Chu, to the Manns, to everybody else that has had a hand with the book, I am perfectly willing to give the benefit of the doubt to and suggest they’re all at least TRYING to make this work. And it IS still an enjoyable story, despite these flaws, and I’m looking forward to the climax, albeit with a bit of fear as to how they decide to wrap this up. I’m just saying that it’s unfortunate that the current situation is preventing it from being even better. But, as the old saying goes, beggars can’t be choosers, and there WAS a lot of begging for this book.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on this issue. Got a different opinion? Feel free to leave it in the comments below, and let’s hope the final issue next month proves to be a satisfying conclusion…especially since it’s the last individual comic I’ll be buying regularly, since I’m switching over to the trades to save money. Ja né!

And, with that, the final four of Marvelous May are made official. Two of these incredible superheroines will move on to the finals, and one will become the champion of the Marvelous May fan-vote tournament. So, feel free to vote on this match-up, and if you haven’t already, go vote on She-Hulk vs Jane Foster. Then, be sure to check back in on May 23rd to see who the Marvelous May finalists are. Ja né!

Not much I wanna talk about here, so go ahead and vote on this match-up. Also, remember that the next semi-final match will be announced on May 17th, so if you haven’t voted on Ms. Marvel vs Spider-Gwen or Gamora vs Rogue, be sure to go do so now, as two of those four superheroines will face off to determine who goes to the finals to face the winner of this match on May 23rd. And yeah, click the links below to learn about all these marvelous superheroines. Ja né!

Yeesh, and I thought I had it rough with my niece turning 12 today. o.O Anyway, here are the preview pages for Poison Ivy: Cycle of Life and Death #5.

Trouble is brewing as Poison Ivy’s sporelings discover their powers and spread their wings, causing mayhem across Gotham City! Plus, a murderer-mastermind is revealed in this penultimate chapter of Life and Death!